The year 1976 was crucial for the evolution of heavy metal, as landmark albums like Rainbow's Rising and Scorpions' Virgin Killer began to reshape the genre. Perhaps none was quite as important as Judas Priest's sophomore effort, Sad Wings of Destiny, which simultaneously took heavy metal to new depths of darkness and new heights of technical precision. Building on the hard prog of bands like Queen and Wishbone Ash, plus the twin-guitar innovations of the latter and Thin Lizzy, Sad Wings fused these new influences with the gothic doom of Black Sabbath, the classical precision of Deep Purple, and the tight riffery of the more compact Led Zeppelin tunes. Priest's prog roots are still readily apparent here, particularly on the spacy ballad "Dreamer Deceiver," the multi-sectioned "Victim of Changes," and the softer sonic textures that appear from time to time. But if Priest's style was still evolving, the band's trademarks are firmly in place – the piercing, operatic vocals of Rob Halford and the tightly controlled power riffing of guitarists K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton.

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce the eagerly-awaited second volume of the Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman Piano Duo’s ground-breaking series exploring Franz Xaver Scharwenka’s transcriptions of Beethoven Symphonies.

Mozart performed by the 2010 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition winners — the Old City String Quartet (now called the Dover Quartet), a young, energetic ensemble made up of graduates from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Cerrone has been a musical icon beyond Disco for five decades. He keeps inspiring the greatest names of electronic music and improving his way of playing and creating music. With 'Disco Symphony' Cerrone revisits in a symphonic way 21 of his greatest hits performed with the Symphony Orchestra of Cannes, directed by the legendary Randy Kerber. Also featuring Cerrone himself on the drums and an additional bass-guitars-keyboards band playing with the orchestra. Merging the power of electronic music, the groove of Disco and the lyrism and unique touch of a symphony orchestra, in respect of the club Culture Cerrone was born in and with.

Franz Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A is arguably the most instantly recognisable piece of chamber music in the entire repertoire, and it remains overwhelmingly popular with performers, broadcasters, audiences and recording companies alike.

It was founded in 1952 as the second radio ensemble of the Bavarian Radio (with the already existing Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra) to perform mainly light music, including operettas. Later, the orchestra also participated a lot in concert and radio performances of operas, especially Italian ones.

The Missa Cellensis in honorem Beatissimae Virginis Mariae in C major by Joseph Haydn, Hob. XXII:5, Novello 3, was originally written in 1766, after Haydn was promoted to Kapellmeister at Eszterháza following the death of Gregor Joseph Werner. The original title as it appears on the only surviving fragment of Haydn's autograph score, that has been discovered around 1970 in Budapest, clearly assigns the mass to the pilgrimage cult of Mariazell, Styria. Until that discovery, the work was known as Missa Sanctae Caeciliae, or in German Cäcilienmesse, a title probably attributed to the mass in the 19th century. Whether the alternative title refers to a performance of the piece by the St. Cecilia's Congregation, a Viennese musician's fraternity, on some St. Cecilia's day (22 November), as has been suggested, remains speculation.

The Best of Leonard Cohen is a greatest hits album by Leonard Cohen, released in 1975. In some countries from Europe, it was released under the title Greatest Hits. This alternative title was used for the original vinyl release and for CD reissues from the 1980s onwards. The album was not a hit in the United States but did well in Europe, Cohen's major market at the time. He toured in support of the album in 1976, beginning in Berlin on April 22 and ending in London on July 7. The front cover photograph was taken in 1968 in a Milan hotel room, according to Cohen's liner notes.

One of the most iconic and influential albums of all time, "The Dark Side Of The Moon" by Pink Floyd, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2023.

Alan Sparhawk has always been a prolific, protean musician. A restless soul eager to explore unfamiliar sonic and psychic terrain. Though he’s obviously (and justifiably) best-known for his thirty years as frontman of the legendary band Low, a look at Sparhawk’s many side projects across that same span of time shows him experimenting with everything from punk and funk to production work and improvisation. Low itself never settled for a set sound or approach. The band was always a collaboration—a conversation, a romance—between Sparhawk and his wife, Mimi Parker, who was the band’s co-founder, drummer, co-lead vocalist, and its blazing irreplaceable heart. To take the journey from Low’s hushed early work, through the tremendous melodies of their middle period, all the way to the late lush chaos of their final albums, is to witness heads, hearts, and spirits in an act of perpetual becoming.

Use Your Illusion II is more serious and ambitious than I, but it's also considerably more pretentious.

2023 release. Internationally acclaimed saxophonist and composer Kenny G has announced his new album, Innocence.

Record Store Day limited edition with OBI Strip. Jacket's done with metallic foil printing technique.
Consequently the flash on the front sleeve is "silverish" compare to original white color on the first pressings or most of the reissues.The record was cut using a specialist technique known as half-speed mastering.
The artisan process results in cuts that have superior high frequency response (treble) and very solid stable stereo images. In short, a very high quality master that helps to create a very high quality record.

Prolific and constantly evolving, Portland, OR’s STRFKR have continued to release music that consistently connects with music lovers all over the globe. The band started out in a time when a co-sign from blogs and music outlets of note were all but mandatory for new music to be heard and accepted. STRFKR bypassed the hype machine almost completely, focusing instead on making their shows more exciting and pushing their music to new places. Their work ethic both in the studio and on the road has kept them on a steady climb, consistently playing venues on the level of legendary rooms like Terminal 5, Stubb’s, and the 9:30 Club while using any available downtime to work towards the next recording.

An unreleased album for an unusual duo of great artists: Nicola Alesini and Saro Cosentino, who set to music an ideal map where a journey unfolds through seven cities, each of which with its own and unique characteristics and each of which with a multifaceted complexity , sometimes like a sparkling diamond but harmful like a sharp razor.